Laura Tingle

The US president said last month that his planned visit to China on March 31 would be "a wild one". A lot has changed since that confident declaration and most of it has weakened his position.

Amid Iran's missile and drone attacks, a weird sense of normality in Dubai and Abu Dhabi sits awkwardly with the news coverage of burning buildings and reports of strikes on airports.

Iran's actions in attacking neighbouring countries were unprecedented, "almost unhinged" and irrational, according to a senior United Arab Emirates minister.

If there ever was a strategy behind Donald Trump's decision to blow up the Middle East, it is lying in tatters as the second week of the Iran war draws to a close.

Iran's new supreme leader has not been seen or heard from since being elected five days ago.

The ABC's global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, is in Dubai and will provide daily updates on the Middle East war.  

The ABC's global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, is in Dubai and is providing daily updates on the Middle East war.

The ABC's global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, is in Dubai and will provide daily updates on the Middle East war. 

The ABC's global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, is in Dubai and will provide daily updates on the Middle East war.  

While the cabaret of outlandish and contradictory statements and claims continues in Washington, there is considerable pragmatic pessimism in the Gulf about the mess Donald Trump will leave behind.

The mammoth task of getting stranded Australians out of the Middle East is part of a fascinating story of backchannel diplomacy between Gulf countries and Iran that has implications for the likely breakout of broader conflict in the region.

The ABC's global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, is in Dubai and is providing daily updates on the Middle East war. 

Despite their immense wealth — and even their past capacity to influence the globe through their control over oil prices — the Gulf states don't have much ability to influence events in this war.

The ABC's global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, is in Dubai and will provide daily updates on the Middle East war. 

Many Australians are stuck in Dubai, the biggest city in the United Arab Emirates, and won't be leaving any time soon.

What is Iran's strategy in targeting its neighbours in response to the death of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. 

Cracks are appearing in Iran's regime, but sparking the change Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu want to see will likely take more than killing the Ayatollah.

Donald Trump's showmanship and supreme confidence can easily distract from the fact that he had a lot riding on his State of the Union address.

For the first time since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has lost troops faster than it can replace them. It's one of many grim milestones of a bloody war that has now been going for four years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting that the West and Ukraine will run out of resources first.

At a time when so much of the global conversation is about the rapid decline of democracy, it is striking what a huge impact elections are having on world events just now.

While Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Sydney, his government was taking concrete actions in the West Bank designed to "continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state".

A stomping victory by the ruling coalition government of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has opened the way for a major geo-strategic realignment in the Asia-Pacific region, with big implications for Australia.

Unravelling the threads of antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment will require both more political courage and more community tolerance than we have seen to date.

The last remaining nuclear arms pact between the United States and Russia has come to an end at a time of global instability.